Analyse the information

Evaluating a book makes it possible to judge its relevance, taking into account the needs raised by the work to be accomplished, and the quality of its content. Regardless of the source of the document, it is always the responsibility of the researcher to carry out this exercise in order to maintain its credibility.

Objective 

•  Know how to apply criteria to better evaluate the quality and relevance of the information contained in a book.

• It is important to be able to trust the information located, whether printed or electronic. The researcher must use critical judgment to assess its quality and relevance. Also, any information whose origin is unknown should a priori be excluded. Once the evaluation is completed, a more in-depth reading of the texts selected for the research work begins.

Periodical (magazine) articles address issues from a current perspective and are generally more up-to-date than published books on the same subject. The depth of content analysis will, however, depend on the type of journal.

Objective 

• Distinguish between types of journals to better assess their usefulness.

The evaluation of a journal article makes it possible to judge its relevance, taking into account the needs raised by the work to be accomplished, and the quality of its content. Regardless of the source of the document, it is always the responsibility of the researcher to carry out this exercise in order to maintain its credibility.

Objective 

• Know how to apply criteria to better evaluate the quality and relevance of the information contained in a journal article.

• It is important to be able to trust the information located, whether printed or electronic. The researcher must use critical judgment to assess its quality and relevance. Also, any information whose origin is unknown should a priori be excluded. Once the evaluation is completed, a more in-depth reading of the texts selected for the research work begins.

Evaluating a website makes it possible to judge its relevance, taking into account the needs generated by the work to be accomplished, and the quality of its content. Regardless of the source of the document, it is always the responsibility of the researcher to carry out this exercise in order to maintain its credibility.

Objective 

• Know how to apply criteria to better evaluate the quality and relevance of the information contained in a website.

• It is important to be able to trust the information located, whether printed or electronic. The researcher must use critical judgment to assess its quality and relevance. Also, any information whose origin is unknown should a priori be excluded. Once the evaluation is completed, a more in-depth reading of the texts selected for the research work begins.

Links/documents

• To better understand good practices in using information found on the Web, consult the  Question of Common Sense! capsules.

An effective working method includes reading texts and taking notes, often in the form of reading sheets.

Objective 

• Acquire a good working method for gathering information for research work.

An academic work is not approached as leisure reading because you must identify relevant information in the context of the work to be carried out and retain important notions and ideas to enrich your own knowledge in the field.

• identify main ideas and secondary ideas.
• note important passages and corresponding page numbers.
• be attentive to transition particles that add an idea, mark a restriction, motivate a judgment or announce an example (see a list of  relation markers ).

Furthermore, do not hesitate to:

• interrupt reading that does not arouse interest or that strays from your needs.
• make a selective reading according to the objective pursued.
• reread passages deemed important to fully understand the author's ideas.
• leave aside a work that would require prior knowledge.

To manage your time effectively, it is advisable to methodically collect the information gathered during reading in the form of cards. Reading sheets are used not only to find a document later, but also to take notes for writing the research work.

It is best to develop only one idea per sheet. Studying a document could therefore require several reading sheets. Records in electronic format can be produced with word processing software, a spreadsheet or  bibliographic management software  (see this example with  EndNote ).

Several Web applications also offer interesting alternatives with enriched functions:

• Evernote
• Simplenote
• Notesync
• Memonic

• Acquiring an effective working method involves knowing how to read documents and how to complete this reading by compiling comments in well-organized sheets.

Links/documents